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I know I usually end my posts with that remark: God is good! He is! God is infinitely good! Today in contemplating the attributes of God, and particularly His goodness, I got a vision. I’m not sure that I can adequately describe what I saw. It was like multi-dimensional puzzle making up a true picture of God. One piece was Goodness and this goodness was infinite and infused all the other pieces.

Another piece was Justice and God’s justice was infinite and infused all His other attributes. God is patient, and God’s patience is infinite and infused all His other attributes, and is infinitely infused with His goodness and His justice.

And so forth. God’s goodness is a goodness so complete and huge and so completely infuses all His other attributes that it can never be separated from anything He says or does. God is infinitely and perfectly good! This is my thought for today from the Prayer Center in Malta. God is good!

The Bait of Satan by John Bevere

Day Six

This is day 6 of a 21 day fast for understanding the End Times (now), and knowing how to prepare for the perilous days ahead. Today I heard a sermon by John Bevere based on his book The Bait of Satan. The key scripture is Matthew 24:10-12, in which Jesus is speaking of the End Times (NKJV):

And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold (emphasis mine).

He pointed out that the word translated as love is agape, Christian love. So Jesus isn’t speaking of unbelievers, He’s talking about God’s people. People in the church—Christians—will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Lawlessness will abound in the church—among Christians.

Lawlessness means being a law unto yourself, not submitted to God’s authority. So, not necessarily sinning, but definitely not submitted and following Jesus. In an atmosphere of lawlessness, of course many will be offended.

Proverbs 18:19 says: “A brother offended is harder to win than a strong city, and contentions are like the bars of a castle” (NKJV). In those days strong cities were surrounded by walls, also called strongholds. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 says:

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ (emphasis mine).

Instead of the word pretension, the Phillips translation says “every deceptive fantasy and every imposing defence that men erect. . .”.

Bevere said that an offended person’s thoughts become strongholds—arguments, deceptive fantasies, imposing defences—and that is how offense leads to betrayal. He defines betrayal as seeking to benefit or protect one’s self at the expense of someone you have a relationship with—the ultimate abandonment of a relationship.

Betrayal leads to hatred. Hatred is not a strong emotion like love or anger, but is the absence of love, lovelessness.

Going back to Matthew 24, verse 11 says: “Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.” An offended heart is the breeding ground for deception. They will genuinely believe that they are right, when in fact, they are wrong.

Offense and deception lead people to isolate themselves: “A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire; he rages against all wise judgment,” (NKJV, emphasis mine). Rather than seeking God’s wisdom or the guidance and counsel of their pastor or believing friends, the offended and deceived person isolates themselves and rages against all wise judgment. They seek only their own counsel. Isolation happens in the thoughts. It is very likely that the offended person still goes to church, but remains isolated in their mind, which makes them a perfect candidate for deception.

“. . . because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold,” (Matthew 24, verse 12). The person is not seeking God, and not submitted to God’s authority, and likely they were already lawless before the offense. When offended, their love (agape) will grow cold (hatred).

The person who can offend you the deepest is the person closest to you—your spouse, best friend, or pastor. And it is very likely that the offended person has been genuinely mistreated. But Bevere points out that if you want to walk with God, you don’t have the right to be offended.

This past year I have seen offense and betrayal up close and personal 4 times, in both marriages and ministries. Twice I was a participant. Once I was the party offended. I had been so angry as a result of the offense that I was literally out of my mind. It is true that this person genuinely mistreated me, and it is also true that there was no actual sin involved. My wake-up call came when I couldn’t stop myself from raging at this person to the point of tears and fleeing from my presence. That’s when I realized that my anger was way out of proportion with the offense. I sought God and asked forgiveness from Him and from the person, both of whom were gracious to me, and there was a full reconciliation.

In the other incident, I had thought that only the other person was offended by something I had done. In fact, we were both offended and we both betrayed each other. I had been so deceived as to believe that I hadn’t been offended and that I hadn’t betrayed this person. But in prayerful examination, I now see the truth. The devil had been working both sides of this situation. In this case, I’m not sure how to be reconciled to this person, but now that I can see my part in it, there’s at least the hope of reconciliation.

Be warned! The deception is very powerful. Verse 13 of Matthew 24 continues: “But he who endures to the end shall be saved.” You can be right as right can be, and still go to hell because of your attitude. We’ve got to be alert and firm in our love for one another.

To see John Bevere’s full sermon follow this link: The Bait of Satan. God is good! He’s also very patient with me!

Day Three

The really cool thing about having the gift of encouragements (or exhortation) is that while encouraging others in the full spiritual exercise of the gift (in other words, not in my own ability), I am also encouraged. Often, in fact most of the time, I only hear the words for the first time as they are coming out of my mouth. Sometimes, if it is a word only for that person, I won’t remember what I said. And even that is encouraging. Sometimes that person will tell me: “Remember when you told me . . . ? It was just what I needed to hear.” It’s encouraging because I know that it was the Holy Spirit speaking through me.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:11, Paul writes: “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” Then he goes on to show what encouragement looks like:

5:11 – Build each other up: tell others the qualities that you genuinely appreciate about them.

5:12 – Respect those who are over you: cooperate with your co-workers in Christ, especially those in leadership.

5:13 – Hold leaders in highest regard: don’t participate in gossip about them, and don’t criticize them. In fact, take a moment to tell your leaders how much you appreciate them.

5:13 – Live in peace: deliberately seek to live in harmony with others. Be willing to agree to disagree whenever necessary.

5:14 – Warn the idle: invite them to join you in a project. Sometimes people don’t offer to help because they think that others are more capable or don’t need their help.

5:14 – Encourage the timid: Remind them of who they are in Christ. Remind them of God’s great promises to them.

5:14 – Help the weak: Show love to them and pray for and with them. Take a walk in their shoes and consider what they are going through.

5:14 – Be patient with everyone: Remember that everyone is on their own spiritual walk, and these people (the idle, the timid, and the weak) need encouragement and patient discipling in order to grow.

5:15 – Don’t pay back wrong for wrong: You may be as right and as righteous as you think you are, and the person who wronged you might be as evil and wrong as can be. But only your reaction to this person will establish your righteousness. As Jesus said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” (Matthew 5:44).

5:16 – Be joyful: Put aside all negative thinking. No matter what happens, no matter what seems to go wrong, remember that God is in control. With God on your side, everything will come out for the best, no matter what it looks like right now. God is on your side!

5:17 – Pray continually: Prayer doesn’t just occur in your room and on your knees, though that should be a part of your lifestyle. Practice the presence of God throughout the day. If your thoughts stray from Him to something you shouldn’t be thinking about, bring those thoughts into captivity. Practice breath prayers throughout the day—breath out negativity and impure thoughts; breath in the Holy Spirit’s presence. Memorize a Bible verse and whisper it to yourself throughout the day.

5:18 – Give thanks in all circumstances: God is in control and He is on your side, so thank Him. If something has happened that you can’t thank God for, then thank Him for being in control and for being on your side. Find something in your situation to thank Him for.

5:19 – Do not put out the Spirit’s fire: When the Holy Spirit prompts you to do or say something, cooperate and do it. By cooperating with the Holy Spirit, He will work more and more in your life.

5:20 – Do not treat prophecies with contempt: You may not understand all prophecy, in fact, it is unlikely that you will understand all prophecy. And . . .

5:21 – Test everything and hold onto the good: Whether you understand the prophecy or not, test it. The test is God’s Word. Prophecy that contradicts God’s Word is false prophecy. God will never contradict the Bible. Even if you don’t understand a prophecy, if it stands the test of God’s Word, then hold onto it and watch to see it fulfilled.

5:22 – Avoid every kind of evil: Don’t go into a situation that you know will tempt you. When you are tempted, resist the devil and he will flee from you (James 4:7).

5:23 – Depend on God to sanctify you through and through, and keep you blameless: You can’t do any of these things in your own strength, especially this last one, so depend on God, and He will help you. When you can’t do something (anything), God will do it for you and through you. He doesn’t call the equipped, but equips the called. Or as my friend, Pastor Chris, says: “If your ministry doesn’t scare you, then it’s not from God.”

Have you ever noticed that it’s energizing and at the same time relaxing, fun, and fulfilling to create? Time seems to fly by, and you may have even missed a meal when you’re fully engaged in creating something. This applies to all creative pursuits: visual (drawing, painting, sculpture, photographic, textile arts, ceramics, woodworking, etc.), musical, performing arts (acting, dancing, choreography, set design, etc.) graphic (computer-based artwork, design, PowerPoint, Photoshop, etc.), writing (mine), and any combination of the above, the list is truly endless. I believe this is because when we’re creating we are doing the thing we were made to do.

Consider this: we were made in the image of God—The Creator! When we create, we are imitating our Father. When we create, I believe that we make our Father proud of us. That’s why it’s so rewarding to create. What was the first job given to Adam? Gardening. Adam was the first landscaping designer. Next God brought all the animals to Adam so that he could name them. God could have named the animals, but he gave that task to Adam.

When we got a poodle puppy in 1965, Daddy named him Poodle-a-Go-Go. Daddy’s pet names were all like that: funny and clever. When I was six years old, my parents let me name our cat. I looked carefully at him and named him Fuzzy. OK, not a spectacularly imaginative name, but I think I captured the essence of this long-haired tabby cat. And my parents honored my lame name, calling the cat Fuzzy all the days of his life.

You may say that you’re not very creative or that you have no talent. I say that you just haven’t found your creative niche yet. Like me with naming pets when I was six. Since we’re not God, it takes most of us some time to develop the skills and to perfect our creative talents. Experiment! Try different materials, methods, styles. You’ll find yourself creatively, but you’ve got to be patient with yourself, too. Above all, you’ve got to honor your creativity by spending time at it. You can’t expect to improve if you never spend time at it.

Guess who is incapable of creating: the devil. That’s why he twists God’s perfect creation into something perverted, because he cannot create. He (along with the rest of the angels) was not made in God’s image, only we were. And because he’s jealous of our ability to create, the devil tries to fool us into thinking that creative pursuits are a waste of time, that we should spend our time working at a “real job.” The devil wants you to believe that you must work hard to get anywhere in this world. But you want to know the truth? They say do what you love and the money will come. I believe that’s true because what humans love to do is create. God honors that—especially when we use our creative abilities to honor Him.

The truth is that there is plenty of room in God’s Kingdom for creative pursuits.

So you go to town with that creative thing! Joyfully play (not work) at your creative art. Make our Father proud!